November 18 (SeeNews) - Slovenian reinsurer Sava Re [LJE:POSR] said its consolidated net profit fell 1.6% to 22.6 million euro ($23.9 million) in the first nine months of 2016.
The Sava Re Group posted consolidated gross written premiums of 390.5 million euro through September, up 1.5% from a year earlier, Sava Re said in a Ljubljana bourse filing on Thursday.
Premium growth was fuelled mainly by Slovenian non-life insurance business which expanded by 2.4%, and non-Slovenian insurance business which rose 4.0%. This growth was partly offset by a moderate year-on-year decline in reinsurance premiums of 0.6% and Slovenian life insurance premiums, which dropped 0.8%.
The largest growth in gross premiums written was achieved in the Croatian market (22.3%) and the Macedonian market (8.3%).
Gross claims paid amounted to 195.3 million euro through September, down from 196.4 million euro in the first nine months of last year.
To date, the group wrote 80.0% of its total premium target for 2016. Sava Re estimates that the annual target will be achieved by the end of the year.
The chief project of 2016 was the merger of four Sava Re Group insurers. Zavarovalnica Sava (Sava Insurance Company) was formed from Zavarovalnica Maribor, Zavarovalnica Tilia and the Croatian insurers Velebit osiguranje and Velebit zivotno osiguranje.
Abroad, the Ljubljana-based group has subsidiaries in Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
($=0.944144 euro)